“Probably by elimination,” Sonnen said. “I’ve got nobody out there willing to fight me. And little Jon Jon the leprechaun has my belt that I’m coming to take. There wasn’t a whole lot of math you had to put into it.”

Sonnen will get a crack at Jones’ 205-pound belt on April 27 after the two coach opposite each other on Season 17 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which will begin taping in two weeks with a season debut expected for January on FX.

The pairing has been about two months in the making. In August, Sonnen announced he would be moving from middleweight to light heavyweight and booked a fight against Forrest Griffin for Dec. 29 at UFC 155. But in late August, Sonnen, who had two cracks at Anderson Silva’s middleweight title, the second loss coming in July, began his patented trash talk, aiming it in Jones’ direction.

And lo and behold, Jones’ UFC 151 opponent, Dan Henderson, dropped out with an injury. Sonnen, as has been well documented, was offered the fight against Jones – but Jones turned it down, saying he wanted more than eight days’ notice to fight him. Instead, Jones fought Vitor Belfort at UFC 152, and Sonnen presumably was left to what was supposed to be, anyway – his fight with Griffin at year’s end.

But that fight now is off since Sonnen will be tied up coaching against Jones. The fight that Jones didn’t want on eight days’ notice will be his next title defense – on a little more than six months’ notice, when all is said and done.

“He should not have been pressured into this,” Sonnen said of his opponent. “I did everything I could to warn this guy. I held up a big (sign) that said, ‘Hey Jon, I’m coming to the division, which puts you on notice to pack up your bags and get out of it.’ He was talking about going to heavyweight, and he should have done it. The bottom line is, he waited too long, and now the man has arrived.”

Sonnen also said as a TUF coach, he plans to get the better of Jones, as well – and that will be to the benefit of the fighters who wind up under his tutelage.

“(‘The Ultimate Fighter’) has some tremendous young talent on it,” Sonnen said. “I will be taking 50 percent of that talent and teaching them how to fight. The other half is going to be taught how to be selfish and entitled brats by Jones. The good news for that 50 percent is that when the whole thing is over, I’m sure Coach Jones will throw a hell of an after party.”

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